Fluid delivery systems frequently provide access ports to allow a fluid consumer access to a fluid supplied by such systems. One such fluid delivery system is a water delivery system provided by utilities across the US. One type of access port provided by such systems is a fire hydrant. As is well known, fire hydrants (sometimes called “fire plugs”) provide a source of water in most areas with municipal water service. The concept of “fire plugs” dates to at least the 1600s and during such era firefighters responding to a call would dig down to the water mains and hastily bore a hole to secure water to fight fires. When no longer needed, such holes were then plugged with stoppers. Thus, the “fire plug” was born; a colloquial term still used for fire hydrants today.
Modern fire hydrant systems typically provide the following components: (a) a connection (“boot”) to the “mains” (the main fluid source), (b) stand pipe in fluid communication to the mains connection (boot), (c) a hydrant body connected to the stand pipe wherein the hydrant body defines an output port, (d) a cap or bonnet mechanically connected to the upper end of the hydrant body, and (e) an operating nut configured to open and close a valve that allows or prevents water to flow from the main fluid source, to the hydrant body's output port.
It should be noted that at least a portion of the stand pipe is underground. Further, the burry depth of water mains to which fire hydrants connect vary from one installation site to another requiring some way of adjusting the length of the stand pipe element so that one end of the hydrant body is at or near ground level. Today's method of compensating for different burry depths is to use expensive stand pipe extensions. What is needed is a better and more cost-effective way to compensate for different burry depths.
Another issue with fire hydrants is damage due to being hit by objects such as vehicles. We have all seen movie scenes where a vehicle runs into a fire hydrant and water come shooting out of the fire hydrant way up into the air. Such a failure can be caused by even relatively minor collisions with a “wet barrel” fire hydrant causing extensive and expensive damage to the fire hydrant system. What is needed is an apparatus and method that allows for a more flexible fire hydrant system that is designed with relatively inexpensive components that yield/pivot at low energy impacts and break at high energy impacts to limit damage to the remainder of the system.